Arcadia Firefighter Mike Herdman died instantly after falling from a cliff in the Sespe Wilderness of the Los Padres National Forest, according to the Ventura County Medical Examiner’s Office.

“The injuries were significant enough that when the fall occurred it caused immediate death,” said Armando Chavez, chief deputy medical examiner. “He’d fallen off the edge of a mountain or a cliff.”

The length of time before Herdman was found makes it impossible to pinpoint when the fall happened, Chavez said.

“The condition of the body just indicates that he’s been dead for days,” he said. “We don’t know if it was the day the search began or the day he became separated from his friend, that’s something we can’t be certain.”

The death was ruled accidental.

“There is no information or anything to make us believe that it was anything other than accidental,” Chavez said.

The examiner’s office plans to release a detailed report on the death in the next 30 days.

Search and rescue teams found Herdman’s body June 27 a short distance from where he and fellow Arcadia firefighter Taylor Byars set up a camp site during a four-day hiking trip.

“It is very steep terrain where he was found,” said Capt. Don Aguilar, of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department.

Herdman went missing when he went chasing after his dog, Duke, roughly two days into the four-day trip. Byars hiked out of the wilderness two days later after spending the first day trying to find his friend, according to the sheriff’s department.

Search teams scoured the forest looking for Herdman for days before scaling down their efforts after finding little evidence. The searchers captured Duke roughly six miles away from where Herdman’s body was located.

The discovery came after a helicopter pilot ferrying in one of the few remaining ground search teams spotted Herdman’s body partially covered by a brush on June 27, 11 days after the search began.

Herdman, a Cal Poly San Luis Obispo graduate, worked at the Arcadia Fire Department for seven years. His friends described him as an athlete and avid adventurer who meticulously planned his outings. Herdman grew up in Southern California and went camping in the Sespe Wilderness four times prior to this trip. He is survived by his wife and six-year-old daughter.